WHesterN Hemisphere

The visit to Brazil had come as a pleasant surprise – an invitation by the Brazilian Association of Ethanol Producers (Unica) and APEX, the Brazilian government’s export development agency, for me to participate in a press tour and conference on ethanol and biofuels, including a field visit.  

The timing was excellent, as I had just been commissioned by a publication in Canada to produce an article on Brazilian energy. All I needed to do (and I did) was to secure some interviews with people involved with hydrocarbons (from Petrobras employees to independent experts) to complement my stint in São Paulo, and then I was off and running.  

I arrived to a grey, overcast, São Paulo.   The drizzle didn’t bother me much; after all, the temperature was warm enough that a light long sleeve sweater was all I needed. Yeah, I thought to myself,  I can handle this “winter” weather! Everyone else, however, seemed to think they were the midst of a super cold spell. The minute they went outside, they started to shiver and complain of “how cold” it was, and in the most caring way, they made sure the little kids had hats, wools sweaters, and as we sat around waiting for the bus that would take us from the international airport to the domestic one, they further wrapped their little ones in fleece blankets. All this when the temperature was around 11 Celsius!

How about that?  Not two minutes in my native country and I was reminded that feeling cold was truly a matter of perspective. When I was young, anything below 20 or 18 degrees would have sent me to the closets to dig up my one and only wool sweater. Now, after thirty years in Canada, and  I own a vast collection of sweaters and jackets but chances are, I won’t need them at this temperature! 

I smiled to myself and continued on my journey. Off to Rio and a weekend with my family. But here again, I had to reconsider my point of view. This time it came in a conversation with the taxi driver about any improvements to this magnificent city’s crime rate, and its citizen’s feelings of security.  My curiosity was to see whether any changes have been forthcoming from a change in the State’s leadership. As it was, the previous two Governors’  tenures had been marked by increased violence everywhere;   many had hopes that this would change when Sergio Cabral came to power in 2007. In November, when I last visited, the consensus was that it was still early to tell whether he would be able to make the necessary changes, so I was curious to find out if  by now things had changed.

My driver seemed to consider my question thoughtfully, and answered, “from my perspective, all is fine and well.” Great I thought, things are improving and violence abating.  “But,” he said, “it is just that it hasn’t touched me personally.  Yesterday, a woman right in front of me had her car robbed in plain daylight. The robber, armed with a handgun, forced her and her two children out of the car, and drove away. “But you see,” he continued, “no one was hurt,so that was a good day.” When I asked him if anyone had done anything to help the poor woman he said no, not really. “Who would want to get killed to protect a vehicle? Forget it, it won’t happen.”  

I was left shaking my head. As I entered my parents’ place in a comfortable neighbourhood, after opening a wrought iron gate, then a locked garage door, then another locked door to the elevator, and then two locks to their own door, I was fully conscious that any feeling of personal security or insecurity….was a matter of perspective.